Functional Skills Reform Update

Functional Skills update

Welcome to NOCN update on the reform of Functional Skills English and mathematics. The purpose of this update is inform you about the progress that has been made and to highlight some of the key documents. Ofqual and DfE have carried out consultations on the reform of Functional skills English and maths.Ministers have agreed the subject content and DfE have published the Subject Content for English and mathematics Functional Skills Qualifications.

The reformed Functional Skills Qualifications are for first teaching 1 September 2019. Legacy qualifications (this is the current qualifications) are expected to have an overlap of up to 12 months.Therefore, there will be the legacy Functional Skills and the Reformed Functional Skills running parallel in for a period of time.

The accreditation for Functional Skills will end early 2019, NOCN estimate that the release of sample papers will then be available to centres.

There will be a requirement for a form of spelling test to be carried out for Entry level English from a prescribed list of spellings that the DfE have provided in the subject criteria. Dictionaries will not be allowed for writing assessments at any level, this includes spell checks and any other electronic form of dictionaries.

British Sign Language will be allowed for the speaking and listening assessment.

Functional Skills mathematics

There will be two sections for mathematics a calculator and a non-calculator section for all levels of Functional Skills. Ofqual have decided on the split of the paper. The paper remains one assessment,however, there will be different sections.

Centre Events

NOCN will be holding centre events early 2019 to ensure that communication and verification of the changes are disseminated to our centres.

The Functional Skills reform is underway! For an update on NOCN’s preparations for the reform please download the document below.